


What I Would Do

by fablefighter



Category: Fablehaven, Fablehaven Series - Brandon Mull
Genre: Dragons, dragonwatch spoilers, seriously though kendra is a badass and I love her, some very mild language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-19 22:56:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10649796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fablefighter/pseuds/fablefighter
Summary: Kendra had gone back for a backpack. Something as stupid as a backpack, and now she was cornered by a dragon and stuck in an impossible situation.Beware. Dragonwatch spoilers ahead.(Alternatively: Kendra is a fucking badass)





	What I Would Do

The situation was dire. Kendra had been in a lot of pretty terrible situations, but rarely was she all alone, facing something that could, would, and fully intended to kill her in seconds. Life or death situations were a pretty common occurrence in her life. Fairies, she could deal with her own. Demons trying to take over a preserve? Sure. A particularly large dragon staring her dead in the eyes from five feet away with the intention to murder her, and no backup whatsoever? 

Not quite as accustomed to that. 

After the incident with Celebrant, Kendra could hold her own in a conversation with a dragon. Most of them paled slightly in comparison to the raging dragon king, and she’d come to pride herself on being able to both speak and move in a dragon’s presence. So yes, she could speak, and move to an extent, but neither of those were really helping her situation. 

The giant blue eyes were following her through the last layer of trees as she stumbled back another several feet. All she wanted to do was run, but that would be one of the worst options in the moment. Heart racing and entire body trembling, she swallowed and carefully backed up another step. 

“I’d stay still if I were you.” The voice was smooth, silky. Some dragon’s voices were grating, but this one was almost soothing. She really was a beautiful dragon, reflective powder blue scales that sparkles wherever light touched them, and a mouthful of razor sharp teeth that could and would easily tear her to shreds. 

“Avert your eyes, if you will?” Kendra didn’t move. “Please, dear. Be polite.” 

She flickered her eyes to the side reluctantly. Out of her peripheral vision she sensed the giant bulk of the dragon shrinking down and compacting into a less paralyzing human form. Some of the trembling halted, but part of it was just normal fear. In human form she was still beautiful, waist length hair the same color as her scales had been. 

Older dragons liked to play with her food; Gavin had been an asshole demon prince, but he’d at least given her that bit of correct information. This dragon was clearly older and had every intention of doing just that. Footfalls approached her across the layer of leaves on the forest floor, until she was only a foot away from Kendra, with a single finger tracing her jawline. She flinched and squeezed her eyes shut. How had she let this happen? She was the caretaker, why the hell had she gone back for something as unnecessary as a backpack? Too complacent. She’d been too complacent, and now she was going to die because of it. 

The backpack and sword she had brought with her were both lying abandoned on the other side of the small clearing where she’d dropped them when she dove for the cover of trees. 

The hand tapped her cheek sharply. “Eyes open, darling. I want you to see me.” 

“Don’t call me darling,” she hissed through gritted teeth, jerking away from the hand. Great. Talk back to the dragon, what a lovely idea. She needed to stop hanging around Seth so often, although if she survived this, he’d be proud. 

This time it was a slap instead of a tap. The stinging across her face burned, and the force almost knocked her over. 

“Hush,” the dragon snapped. “Or I’ll kill you sooner.” 

“I’m the caretaker. Do you realize what’ll happen if you do that?” 

“Do you realize that I don’t care about that?” she hummed. “Obviously not.” 

No. She wouldn’t die, not this way, and definitely not by this damn dragon. What would Warren do? Probably something self sacrificial that would get him out injured but alive, she supposed, but something that he could only pull off with his years of training. She didn’t have that advantage. Kendra only had her couple of years of self defense, and a year of fight training from Henrick. 

Vanessa? Vanessa always had something up her sleeve. As did Tanu- neither of them ever seemed to get caught in a situation like this, what with the dozens of small hidden pockets sewed into all their clothing, all filled with various deadly poisons. 

Seth, even. What would Seth do? He’d escape from this somehow, talk his way into a deal. She’d already used his sarcasm (a trait she had recently picked up and developed quite well), but her one sad bargaining attempt had failed miserably. 

Her mind pulled a blank. There was only flat static where there should have been a brilliant idea, and every passing second filled her with more panic and dread. 

“Anything else to say?” 

The dragon had a firm grip on her chin now, tilting her face upwards to look at her better. She resisted the urge to pull away and run, because that would result in the dragon reverting back into dragon form and crushing her instantly. There was no hope in that idea. What she needed was- a distraction. She needed some kind of distraction. She’d ran through what other people would do and had struck out, but the entire time she’d missed out on the most obvious question. 

What would I do? 

The time for placing all her trust in someone else to swoop in and rescue her at the last second was over. Panic flooded out of her and was quickly replaced by complete and utter rage. Yes, she was a damsel, yes, she was in distress, and yes, she was going to handle it. She was cornered by a dragon in its; human form, afraid to even pull her face away from it, for God’s sake, and she was pissed off. She was pissed off at everybody, (including this damn dragon) for underestimating her constantly. A year ago she’d asked Seth what would happen if people stopped underestimating the two of them, and, well, now she had an answer. 

“You’re frozen even when I’m in my human form. Pathetic.” 

And the last straw had been pulled. Without wasting another thought, Kendra pulled her arm back as far as she could and punched the dragon in face as hard as she possibly could. 

 

Maybe it was the shock factor. Maybe Kendra was stronger than she thought she was. Maybe it was mixture of the two. For whatever reason, accompanied by an oh-so-satisfying crunching noise, Kendra’s fist connected squarely with it’s nose, and the dragon fell back onto the ground with a cry of pain. 

Kendra didn’t spend time admiring her work. Swooping up the sword and the lightweight backpack in one move, she took off in the direction of the keep and didn’t look back. Heart pounding almost as hard as her feet were pounding against the forest floor, trying her best to not to run into a tree. Behind her, the crashing and snapping of tree limbs indicated that the dragon had returned to her… well, dragon form, and the following roar of anger confirmed it. 

Speeding up, Kendra’s foot hooked on a tree branch and she went sprawling to the ground with a thud. She scrambled up quickly, but the shadow of the dragon flew overhead, passing her and turning to swoop around back towards her. 

Shit. 

Kendra forwent her beeline path towards the Keep and instead darted to the side, sprinting as fast as she could up the steep hill. She could see it in the distance. Maybe, at this point, they were realizing something was wrong, especially with the dragon swooping around everywhere, but even if they sent help they wouldn’t make it in time. 

The dragon swooped lower, mouth opening as it dove for her. There was a scream caught in the back of her throat. She couldn’t die, she couldn’t, but what else could she do? Death seemed like the only possible option when she was being dive bombed by a dragon intent on killing and eating her. There wouldn’t even be any pieces left to bury. 

In a last ditch effort Kendra threw herself toward. The bottom of the dragon’s jaw brushed the top of her head as she fell toward, and at the last second she twisted over and drove the point of the adamant covered sword into the soft spot on it’s stomach. To her surprise, it made its’ mark yet again. Another deafening scream- or was it a roar?- of pain and suddenly the dragon was skimming even closer over the ground and crashing into the trees. 

Kendra scrambled to her feet again. This time unburdened by the weight of the sword, she secured the backpack and sprinted back up the hill. Her path was back on track, but it was getting hard to breathe. She was running out of energy. With her last bit of energy, she threw herself up over the edge of the hill and rolled into the protected space. 

“KENDRA!” 

Her entire body was shaking yet again, this time out of exhaustion. Seth and Warren were approaching the fastest. She’d forgotten that Warren was visiting today, out of all days… whoops. Way to ruin that trip. Coughing, she pushed herself into sitting position and smiled at the both of them. They looked incredibly alarmed. 

“What happened? I thought the dragon had…” Warren swore loudly but didn’t finish the sentence. 

Kendra snorted. When the look of alarm and confusion on their faces increased, she burst out into laughter, slipping the backpack off of her shoulder and holding it up. 

“I got the backpack.”

**Author's Note:**

> So! This is my first Fablehaven fanfiction as well as the first fanfiction I've posted in years, I hope it's ok (especially since I didn't really edit it. It's also very short but it sure is something). 
> 
> Also, apparently italics don't really transfer from google docs and I have no idea what to do about that so know that there were, in fact, intended words in italics scattered throughout this. It's the thought that counts.


End file.
